There is word that Facebook will soon be using #hashtags and incorporating this in their search algorithms. Though this development is “#imminent” the timeline is “#indeterminate.”
Sources close to the project confirm that Facebook is working on it but it is not clear when this will be implemented. The latest round of Facebook improvements has been with the user interface and in rolling out Graph Search. As in the past, the website revisions and upgrades do not come on a regular basis or any predetermined time frame. Instead, Facebook implements these changes as they see fit, sometimes without any fanfare.
Tags, Twitter and Hashtags
Hashtags are words or phrases prefixed by the pound sign also called the hash. Tags have been used in one form or another since the 1990s. These became popular with blogging sites like Blogger.com, WordPress and Livejournal.com. But Twitter was the first which used the pound sign to designate tags.
Twitter users first used hashtags around five years ago to put an easy to remember category to their tweets. The hashtags didn’t have to be anything particular, and could be anything from #winning and #TGIF to #ReasonsWhyNoOneLikesYou. The tags can be memory aids or milestones. Twitter users have used hashtags to track trending topics instead of depending on tweet keywords. Twitter has been urging corporate users to come up with unique hashtags of their own in order to promote products or events.
Hashtag Use in Real-Time
Hashtags have gotten more popular with TV live events in order for Twitter followers to follow a conversation or contribute to a Twitter conversation. Other social media sites also use hashtags, including Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.
This development is seen as a possible escalation in the ongoing battle for social media ad revenues. If implemented, one of the beneficiaries would be the cross-platform forwarding of posts, where a tweet is automatically sent to Facebook, hashtags and all.
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